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Be Part of the LIGHT - Just Say NO to Negativity – Online and Offline

Dana Coffey — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:58:00 GMT

I’m a sensitive soul. I tend to absorb the energy to which I expose myself. I’ve found that one way to protect myself and my outlook is to NOT be part of negativity. Have I mastered this? Of course not. But I am definitely making progress.

In my offline life, I’ve taken some steps to reduce the negative energy in my life. I try to no longer participate in gossip sessions. I have been avoiding people who tend to whine and complain with no talk of solutions. I try to be uplifting and supportive. I practice mentally listing 5 things that I *LIKE* about people who annoy the heck out of me. I’ve been trying very hard to “live and let live” while doing my own thing. I try to take the high road when somebody wrongs me. I limit my exposure to televised news, gossip rags and militant cause-promoters. I try to entertain an opposing point of view with respect, even if I may disagree.

Online, my socializations revolve around email, instant messengers, my blog, Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter in particular, I follow over 2,000 people. It’s become quite unmanageable to catch all the posts in my feed, and I often miss lots of valuable stuff. To pare this down to a manageable number, I’ve been looking at those I follow and asking myself, “Do these tweets provide me value? Do they enrich my knowledge, my spirit or my life?” If the answer to those questions is “NO”, then I’m un-following. It’s not a personal attack, and I certainly encourage people to be themselves, but my time is valuable as is my psychic energy. I choose not to be a part of the negative. It damages me and does not help me to become who I wish to become. Occasionally, I might point out the negative tone of one’s tweets. If I get a verbally abusive or snide response, well there you go – bozo bit flipped. No problem. I will un-follow AND block. I do this again, for MY own well being. These individuals are more than welcome to block me back, although that seems kind of silly (and in some cases oxymoronic) because it’s unlikely I’ll be interacting with them from that point forward. It’s ok though. I understand. The block is against the negativity, not the person. Again – differing viewpoints are fine – abusive comments towards me or others is negativity, and I can’t afford to have that in my life.

Posting nasty comments on my blog is another form of forcing negativity upon me, and I will not have that. I delete those comments and block the sending IP immediately. It’s self-preservation.

For me, it’s all about getting value from my interactions. Value for me consists of helpful, uplifting and positive experiences. Value for me includes love, humor and knowledge. These days I protect my serenity with vigilance and abandon. I wish to be part of the positive in the Universe – part of the light. I need others to help me do that.

Why I Love twitt(url)y

Dana Coffey — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:18:00 GMT

The web is flooded with third party Twitter tools, and most of them have not rendered me joyous in their application. Ok, none have really tripped my trigger to the point of every-day use. None except twitt(url)y . If you already follow me on twitter, then you know I love to post links in the mornings. Most of these are either software/web development related, a little politically charged or weird and funny.

I love the weird and funny ones best! Well Once upon a time, I had to go find all that stuff myself! Even using StumbleUpon was tedious and time consuming for me. Then along comes Twitter. My morning ritual became one of scrolling back through the night’s tweets to see what links I’d like to check out. Then twitt(url)y came along and did the hard work for me! The concept is very simple. They track the links people post to Twitter and they rank them according to number of tweets. This is even better than going through trending topics, because you get the best of the web already vetted through the users of Twitter! Cool huh!

So it’s not often that I bother to blog my love for a third party Twitter tool, but today, I’m loving this one!

Project Huron Wants YOU to Test Cloud-Based Data Services

Dana Coffey — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:39:00 GMT

Microsoft Sync Framework is a comprehensive synchronization platform enabling collaboration and offline for applications, services and devices with support for any data type, any data store, any transfer protocol, and network topology. These guys are putting together an initiative called Project Huron wherein early adopters can kick the tires on cloud based data storage and access for free.

Project Huron is part of Azure, and its goal is “to remove the typical complexities (configuration, scalability, security, etc) involved with sharing database information between local databases such as SQL Server and SQL Compact and provide simple UI tools for configuration and sync components developers can embed in existing applications,” according to a blog post by Microsoft.

To check it out – just go here: http://www.microsoft.com/azure/huron.mspx

My Atlanta Code Camp Talk

Dana Coffey — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:48:00 GMT

Today I will be at the Atlanta Code Camp giving a talk about Empowering Women in Technology. Being a woman, this is a cause near and dear to my heart. Women are hugely under-represented in the Technology field, and there are many reasons for that. Some have to do with how we steer girls when they are younger, preconceived notions regarding women’s roles, women’s innate desires and abilities and the industry in general. We will be discussing some of the obstacles as well as our strengths and ways we can network, mentor and encourage one another so that more women will be represented in the technology industry. I look forward to doing similar talks at other venues – so if interested, please contact me!

I’d love to hear some feedback and dialogue in the comments regarding what readers think are some good ways to empower and enable women in technology!

Click here for my presentation slides

View Online:

My New Tattoo and What it Means

Dana Coffey — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:01:00 GMT

Shirivasta or Eternal Knot

The Tibetan knot can stand for karmic consequences: pull here, something happens over there. It is an apt symbol for the Vajrayana methods: Often when we tug at one part of a knot while trying to loosen it, another part becomes tighter. You have to work with the knot to enable it to come undone. In its endless configuration, it evokes the cyclic nature of rebirth and also calls karmic connections to mind.

Resembling the well-known Celtic knot, this unbroken weaving of geometric lines has shown up in many cultures around the world, making it a universal symbol. The design is a symmetrical knot, loosely woven, balanced and graceful with no loose ends – in fact no end at all – a closed loop signifying eternity and unity.

For Buddhists, the Endless Knot is a reminder that everything in the universe is related, and that future events have their root in the present. The design represents and symbolizes cause and effect, in other words – karma. The knot, eternal design and symbol that it is, tells us that we are bound to our karmic destiny. The knot is also a reminder to us to keep to the path of enlightenment and to meditate on the master’s teachings.

The Endless Knot may have started off as the intertwining of two snakes - the Naga symbol - (meaning serpent or dragon) and suggestive of dualities like good and evil, or light and darkness. But such opposing forces are destined to come together to create harmony in the universe. A decidedly snakelike banner is sometimes shown lacing its way through the lower loops of the Endless Knot.

The Endless Knot has given rise to many interpretations that involve interdependence, such as wisdom and compassion, religion and secular affairs, stillness and action.

The endless knot (Skt. shrivatsa; Tib. dpal be'u) is a closed, graphic ornament composed of right-angled, intertwined lines. It overlaps without a beginning or an end, symbolising the Buddha's endless wisdom and compassion. It indicates continuity as the underlying reality of existence. It is conjectured that it may have evolved from an ancient naga symbol with two stylized snakes.

The image signifies the dramatic interplay and interaction of the opposing forces in the dualistic world of manifestation, leading to their union, and ultimately to harmony in the universe. This fact is amply reflected in the symmetrical and regular form of the endless knot.

The intertwining of lines represents how all phenomena are conjoined and yoked together as a closed cycle of cause and effect. Thus the whole composition is a pattern that is closed on in itself with no gaps, leading to a representational form of great simplicity and fully balanced harmony.

Since all phenomena are interrelated, the placing of the endless knot on a gift or greeting card is understood to establish an auspicious connection between the giver and the recipient. At the same time, the recipient is goaded to righteous karma, being reminded that future positive effects have their roots in the causes of the present. This is because the knot represents a connection, a link with our fates, binding us to our karmic destiny. Not surprisingly, this is one of the most favorite symbols in Tibetan Buddhism, and often occurs on its own.

Other, related interpretations of the endless knot have also been given, such as the following:

The auspicious drawing symbolises the mutual dependence of religious doctrine and secular affairs. Similarly, it represents the union of wisdom and method, the inseparability of emptiness and dependent arising at the time of path, and finally, at the time of enlightenment, the complete union of wisdom and great compassion.

lotus

The lotus (Sanskrit and Tibetan padma) is one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols and one of the most poignant representations of Buddhist teaching.

The roots of a lotus are in the mud, the stem grows up through the water, and the heavily scented flower lies pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight. This pattern of growth signifies the progress of the soul from the primeval mud of materialism, through the waters of experience, and into the bright sunshine of enlightenment.

Though there are other water plants that bloom above the water, it is only the lotus which, owing to the strength of its stem, regularly rises eight to twelve inches above the surface.

According to the Lalitavistara, "the spirit of the best of men is spotless, like the lotus in the muddy water which does not adhere to it."

According to another scholar, "in esoteric Buddhism, the heart of the beings is like an unopened lotus: when the virtues of the Buddha develop therein, the lotus blossoms; that is why the Buddha sits on a lotus bloom."

The lotus is one of Buddhism's best recognized motifs and appears in all kinds of Buddhist art across all Buddhist cultures. Scrolling lotuses often embellish Buddhist textiles, ceramics and architecture.

The color of the lotus has an important bearing on the symbology associated with it:

· White Lotus (Skt. pundarika; Tib. pad ma dkar po): This represents the state of spiritual perfection and total mental purity (bodhi). It is associated with the White Tara and proclaims her perfect nature, a quality which is reinforced by the color of her body.

· Pink Lotus (Skt. padma; Tib. pad ma dmar po): This the supreme lotus, generally reserved for the highest deity. Thus naturally it is associated with the Great Buddha himself.

· Red Lotus (Skt. kamala; Tib: pad ma chu skyes): This signifies the original nature and purity of the heart (hrdya). It is the lotus of love, compassion, passion and all other qualities of the heart. It is the flower of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.

· Blue Lotus (Skt. utpala; Tib. ut pa la): This is a symbol of the victory of the spirit over the senses, and signifies the wisdom of knowledge. Not surprisingly, it is the preferred flower of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom.

Another symbolic characteristic of the lotus flower leads from the observation that the plant's stalk is easy to bend in two, but is very hard to break because of its many strong sinuous fibers.

In Buddhism the lotus flower symbolizes faithfulness. The golden lotus that is mentioned in Buddhist sutras has two meanings, one is the symbol for the achievement of enlightenment and the other points towards a real flower which is beyond our normal perception.

Chinese poets also use lotus flowers to inspire people to continue striving through difficulties and to show their best part to the outside world, no matter how bad the circumstances may be. This is understood as being just like the lotus flower, bringing beauty and light from the murky darkness at the bottom of the pond.

The sacred Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, is an extreme important spiritual symbol in Eastern religions. It represents purity, divine wisdom, and the individual's progress from the lowest to the highest state of consciousness.

The lotus represented distancing oneself from vulgarity. It was a metaphor that related to contemporary utopian notions, but was surely connected as well to the Buddhist ideal of "keeping apart from the world, like the lotus."

Apart from pursuing inner cultivation, meditation and deep thought, experiencing muck is also a form of cultivation, for it tests one's ability to endure misfortune and to sacrifice. Only by going to hell and being tempered by fire there, can one rise to religious exaltation and radiate the brightest and most beautiful light.

The lotus was an important icon in ancient Egypt, the inspiration for the Phoenician capitals that preceded the Ionic order of design, the sacred flower of Hindu religions and the object of the principal mantra of Tibetan Buddhism: om mani padme hum, which means "Hail, jewel in the lotus." Given the mechanical efficiency of prayer wheels that symbolically repeat those words without pause, the lotus may be the most frequently invoked plant in the world. In various parts of the world it has been a symbol of fertility, birth, beauty, sunlight, transcendence, sexuality and the resurrection of the dead. A twelfth-century Sanskrit poem extols Brahma, "the lotus of whose navel forms thus our universe." But above all, the lotus represents purity.

What an enchanting paradox, then, that the lotus grows in muddy waters, emerging from them unblemished and untouched by pollution.

The lotus petals were specifically chosen for the heart and wisdom representations (red and blue) are arranged with eight leaves in a circle to represent the Dharma Wheel and the 8-fold path.

When Twitter Stops Adding Value

Dana Coffey — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:38:00 GMT

I recently have had what I like to call a “Twitter Meltdown”. Don’t get me wrong, I love Twitter. It’s just well I tweet a *LOT*. It seems as though over the last few weeks however, I had suddenly gone all addict OCD weird about it. I found myself angry, annoyed, spiteful, negative and well frankly not getting value anymore. Why? because my focus was all skewed. I just want to take a moment to share a tiny bit about what brought about my unhappiness so that perhaps you – my innocent ~~victim~~ reader might avoid these pitfalls. So here are the things that got me totally off-track:

FOLLOWERS – It all began when I set up an account with Socialtoo . They allowed me to subscribe to a nightly email that gave me a summary of who all followed and un-followed me that day. I began to see people on the un-follow list with whom I thought I had a good rapport. Seeing they had un-followed me was like a slap in the face. Well ever the passionate and vengeful red-head, I had to un-follow them right back. Take that you back stabbing pseudo follower! There were others that had un-followed me and it was like being rejected by the class dork – it brought outrage! How dare YOU un-follow ME?! Why I should have un-followed your butt a long time ago – I don’t even like SEO! You get the picture. In literally no time flat, I became absolutely OBSESSED with followers, follower counts, follower demographics, etc. Obsessed. I worried about losing followers, when I’d never really cared before. I had always just been myself on Twitter without thinking. I’m not marketing a product. I just use Twitter for the wonderful interactions.. until I started freaking out about followers that is. I became jealous, spiteful, thin-skinned and uber-critical very quickly. So the takeaway here is that it wasn’t until I began to really FREAK out about followers that I stopped having fun. This whole follower-obsession will also bleed into the next few pitfalls.

HOLY WARS – People on Twitter have opinions – lots of opinions. Sometimes they are not at all in line with MY opinions. That sounds logical and everything, but for some reason I seem to have forgotten that this is normal and perfectly okay. It only stands to reason that if I follow almost 2000 people I’m likely to get at least half as many opinions. Somehow this began to make me angry. I was angry at atheists. I was angry at the outspoken members of the ALT.NET community. I was angry at Democrats. I was angry at mothers leaving babies in daycare. I was angry at anybody who DARED to express an opinion contrary to my own. Many of such people got the axe. There! Take that! I un-followed you! Neener Neener! Ok, honestly, I really *am* a grown up. I don’t know what got into me. This whole outlook was stupid. I was throwing the baby out with the bathwater. In the meantime, I was really alienating several close friends and associates – some to the point of *gasp* UN-FOLLOWING me (yeah I know imagine that)! I had gotten entirely too carried away with my passionate arguments for all my opinions. I felt like I was always fighting or defending myself.

SPAMMERS, BOTS and AUTO-DM’s OH MY! – Ok, I’m hoping this will be my very last rant ever about these things. I’m trying to really figure out why this topic drives me out of my mind, and I think it comes down to what I feel is the value and integrity of twitter. I’ll tackle spammers first. The presence of random names that just want to send you to a url, pimp their goods and services and not actually CONNECT with anybody makes the hair stand up on my neck. You know the ones – either no photo (of one stolen from somewhere else) and no meaningful bio - 1000+ that they are following with less than 100 that are following back (and those that do are only the poor saps who use bots to auto-follow everybody who follows them). They dilute the twitter experience as badly as stupid people dilute the gene pool. Unfortunately I found myself doing a lot of complaining about them. The same goes for the bots. I think the bots make me even more angry than the spammers. Bots are twitter accounts that are set up for the sole purpose of regurgitating things that other people are already saying on twitter. Therefore I might get a reply from somebody in my reply stream and then a few moments later i get the SAME reply but from one of these stupid bots. I hate them. block block block. They had me ranting a lot on twitter the past few weeks too as it seems we’ve hit some sort of critical mass where there are just tons of them. And last but not least – the auto-dm’s that a person can set up using socialtoo (or other services) that respond via dm to a new follower with a “thanks for following! go check out my free e-book” message. They are impersonal and cheesy. You don’t have to thank me for following – oh wait, maybe these people are way too hung up on FOLLOWERS like I’d become. It’s ok, really. I vette those I wish to follow. If I followed you, I already know I can learn from you, will enjoy the dialogue and you do not have to spam me with a bot message to thank me. Again, I have found myself bitching a lot about this lately. Those things have sucked a lot of joy out of Twitter for me, but never fear - this concludes my rant – the bitch stops here.

INTOXICATION BY MY OWN VERBOSITY – This is perhaps the most humbling of my pitfalls of late. I had become so obsessed with sharing every minute thought on twitter than I’d become a bore. There a few days’ updates that when now read make me wince. Gee no wonder I’m getting un-followed (but I’m not worrying about that anymore *smile*)!! I realized I had become the *EXTREME* (insert Billy Mays’ voice) Twitterer. Ouch. I shall stop that honest!

So these are pretty much the ways I’ve sabotaged my Twitter experience. My remedy? I don’t check followers and dropped followers anymore. I refuse to engage in a discussion that makes me angry. I’m tempering my language to be more kind, useful, supportive and community-building. I’m even un-following some people not because I’m being mean this time, but because interaction with some people is like a trigger for me to become a big meanie. As for the spammers, bots and auto-dms – I’m trying not to gripe so much about them. Spammers I can report to @spam. Bots I can block, and well there is nothing I can do about people who still use the auto-dm’s. I suppose I could try to start a movement where we all un-follow those who use auto-dm’s, but ahh that’s a holy war isn’t it? So I’m back to getting VALUE from Twitter – and it’s all simply done by ADJUSTING MY ATTITUDE and not taking myself and Twitter quite so seriously. I'm back to just being myself.

Please leave any feedback or comments below! Oh yeah - Follow Me On Twitter Too! ;-)